Practical Ways to Prioritize Your Marriage Once You’re Parents

February 9, 2017

After sharing this post a few weeks ago with the reminder of how important it is for us to prioritize our marriages even in this season of parenting littles, I figured it would only be fitting to share some practical ideas for how to honor our marriages.

I believe honoring our marriages doesn’t require loads of money or fancy dates. While those can play a role and may work for certain marriages at certain times, there’s no one right way to grow your relationship with your husband. All that matters is that we joyfully make the effort.

So without further ado…

Practice Ways to Strengthen Your Marriage:

Pray for each other.

First and foremost, you can pray for your husband every day. This can be anytime, any length of a prayer, and it is the most powerful way to encourage him. If you’re looking for some guidance and where to start in this area, The Unveiled Wife has a fantastic website (and book) to check out. And for the husbands, Husband Revolution would be a great resource.

Cook Dinner or Bake Dessert Together

Pour yourselves something to drink and sit down on the couch to share about your day.

This could be for 5 minutes or 2 hours, whatever works that night. Just set aside all electronics, look at each other, relax, and talk.

Compliment your spouse.

Get out for a Date.

We’re talking a realdate here, just as a couple. Here are some ideas for this one:

dinner at a sit-down restaurant

sporting event

concert (a lot of coffee houses now have live bands at night too)

movie

go bowling, mini-golfing, or ice skating

massages

dessert

coffee date (or juice bar)

shop (this is a fun one around any holiday or birthday)

exercise (jog, have a tennis match, hike, swim, etc.)

visit your local museum or art exhibit

or even just run needed errands together

Be affectionate.

Walk the farmers’ market or local orchard.

Join a group together that meets regularly.

This could be a couples small group, a slow-pitch coed summer softball league, or anything in between.

Go for a Walk, with or without the kids.

Text each other/check-in during weekdays.

Volunteer together.

Thank him for all that he does for your family.

(If this seems unbalanced, it’s not. And I can almost guarantee that he’ll start thanking you back before long.)

Put the kids to bed and have a simple at-home date.

play cards or a board game

sample different chocolate bars or ice cream flavors and do a puzzle

watch an episode of your favorite show that makes you both laugh

start a new Netflix show together*I would just advise against always choosing tv time as your together time – I think it has a fun place (my husband and I love watching new shows together), you just want to strive for some real face-to-face time as well.

Take a vacation, just the two of you.

Now this is the biggie, of course. It requires much more time and money than anything listed above, but the further I get into parenthood the more I understand the value (and appeal) of this.

No matter how you choose to prioritize your marriage with your time, money, and effort, remember that it is always an investment. It’s the biggest investment you can make in your family – your present and your future.

-Danica

Comments

Love these ideas! I don’t get to spend as much time with my husband as I’d like – working opposite schedules makes it hard. I need to implement some of these ideas and make more of an intentional effort with him. I can tell these days/weeks when it’s been too long since we’ve connected.